


PenPals

by Afflitto



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Long Distance Relationship, M/M, USUK - Freeform, but sorta, the distance isn't as long as they originally thought
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 18:38:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5795545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Afflitto/pseuds/Afflitto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur and Alfred have been textpals for a long time.  However, they're clueless that they live in the same city--much less the same apartment building!    USUK.</p>
            </blockquote>





	PenPals

**Author's Note:**

> (A request by tumblr user aphunitedstates).
> 
> I love yearning USUK, shhh.

_“I don’t know what it is about the spring, but I’m ready to run around screaming like a maniac about now. –Al_ ”

Alfred F. Jones chuckled down at his phone and pressed send.  He always looked forward to Arthur’s curt replies, often dripping with sarcasm that probably required its own font.

_“Not when it’s a bloody 4 degrees out. –Art”_

_“Love it when you talk celsius to me~ -Al”_

Shaking his head, Alfred zipped up his hoodie and pushed through the front door to his apartment complex, pausing a moment to readjust the backpack strap on one shoulder.  The remnants of snow had churned to grey slush in the gutters.  The trees were still bare, but everywhere the world looked just a little greener—little blades of grass poking from the ground, buds in the joints of bushes, the flash of his neighbor’s eyes as he scowled past—

Biting back a laugh, Alfred watched his neighbor rush by, his nose buried in his phone as he hammered away at the keyboard.  He wore a coat just a little bit too heavy for the temperature, but even then shivered as he wrapped his scarf one more time around his neck.

“Oh sheesh,” Alfred thought. “How did Eyebrows survive January, I wonder.”  He watched him board the bus.

His phone chimed again. _“It’s too early in the morning for this, Alfred.  –Art.”_

_“I’m even more annoying in person, I promise.  :P –Al”_

_“And proud of it too, are you.  –Art.”_

Alfred headed down the sidewalk a bit toward the metro station.  He put his phone back in his hoodie pocket, but kept his hand around it. It was the closest thing he had to holding Arthur’s hand.  To him.

Not that he could bring that up in conversation.  Type and type and delete all he could, the words would never quite spell themselves out just right.

–

Arthur Kirkland rifled through the newspaper, tucked away in the corner of the café where an exposed brick wall met the glass window overlooking the street.  He kept his coat pulled close, but his scarf pooled on the table next to his tea.  He liked to watch the strangers wander by as they spilled from the Metro station each night. Sometimes he assigned them stories.

_“How many people do you think are actually spies.  Like on the streets. –Al”_

Arthur blinked down at his phone, one considerable brow raised as he shook his head.  “Where does he get these questions from, I wonder,” Arthur mumbled.  

 _“I could be a spy,”_ he typed back, _“I could be watching you right now. –Art”_

Wouldn’t that be something.

He glanced back out over the fresh wave of people, trying to pick out their faces in the waning light. In all honesty, he hadn’t the foggiest what Alfred actually looked like.  How strange was it to talk to someone every waking moment, but to not know their face.

_”Then you should say hello.  Creeper!  -Al”_

That’s exactly what he’d feel like, asking Alfred for a picture.  He was what, six years Alfred’s senior?  Instead of answering, he set his phone down and sipped his tea.  Out the window, a young man fumbled with his backpack strap as he tried to twist around to zip it back up—then knocked his glasses off his face.  He lunged for them and slid them back on, sighing a visible puff as he ducked into the café.

Arthur snapped the newspaper back up over his face.  Hopefully he hadn’t seen him laughing.

The man ordered a coffee and sat at a table opposite the room, cradling it one hand as he thumbed through his phone with the other.  Arthur continued to look out the window.

“ _You were right.  It’s actually still cold as balls once the sun goes down.  –Al”_

“ _As eloquent as ever.  –Art”_

Arthur’s ears prickled as the man chuckled across the room, but continued staring out the window.  


End file.
